The Red Queen Hypothesis
Posted: Thursday, December 15, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
Alice ran as fast as she could, but could not catch up to the Queen. The faster she ran, the further away the Queen seemed to get. Recognizing the futility, Alice gave up and stopped. When she did, suddenly, curiously, she and the Queen were at the same place again. Alice was perplexed. The Red Queen explained, “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to stay at the same place.” And, so it is in the persistent, complicated struggle of ever changing Life on this planet.
The proliferation of organisms that more efficiently utilize their resources ultimately affects the resource and any other organism that co-exists with it. For example: if a caterpillar develops a trait that enables it to better digest the leaves of a specific, common tree, the caterpillar population soon explodes because there is an abundance of food. However, the resource is adversely affected and there soon are less of those trees. The caterpillar population consequently declines because of its own exploitive efficiency.
But, the tree is a participant in the same evolutionary ‘game.’ Though the majority of them die off, trees that have a slight chemical variation, or some other trait that makes them distasteful to the caterpillars, survive. That trait is passed on to offspring who proliferate because the caterpillars leave them alone and there is less competition for resources. However, the cycle continues. The caterpillars will adapt to consuming the ‘distasteful’ variation. The ecosystem, then, remains in balance through the constant adaptation and change of one species in response to constant adaptation and change of another.
The process occurs throughout the system of Life on Earth. Foxes chase rabbits. Only the fastest rabbits survive to breed. All rabbits become faster as the trait is passed on. Because they are faster than foxes, the rabbit population increases until their resources are over consumed. Then there become fewer rabbits. At the same time, because they can catch rabbits, only the fastest foxes survive to breed. All foxes then become faster. And so on, and so on, as the ecological balance is maintained. “It takes all the running you can do to stay at the same place,” said the Red Queen.
Though balance is maintained through this constant ‘running,’ it does not guarantee survival of the species that co-evolve this way. This “arms race,” as scientists call it, between the species depletes resources and, consequently, alters the general environment. It contributes to a net decrease in the fitness of species to survive. Often, due to increasingly efficient exploitation, the bio-system becomes inhospitable for one or both of the co-evolving species and both become extinct. 99% of all species that have existed on the planet have, ultimately, vanished. 99% of all species existing today must expect to suffer the same fate.
For example: trees in a forest compete for sunlight to optimize the photosynthetic process by which they live. A tree that, through genetic blending via the sexual reproductive process, develops a trait that enables it to grow taller than its neighbors will have a better chance of survival. This, in turn, will force the neighboring trees to adapt and grow taller themselves, or risk extinction. The net effect is that all the trees grow taller but continue to get the same amount of sunlight. Because of the increased biomass of the forest, a much greater amount of resources are consumed to maintain the balance. The general condition of the environment deteriorates, and, ultimately, becomes inhospitable for trees.
Over the long term (scientists believe there has been life on Earth for about 3.6 billion years), the processes of evolution have enabled life to persist in the face of externally produced environmental changes, such as solar energy output variations and volcanism. In the short term, if half a dozen million years can be comprehended as that, organisms, through their survival adaptations, modify their environment and create conditions that lead to their own extinction. There is balance, but there are dramatic, constant swings across a wide range of ‘optimum.’ Generally, Life persists, but individual examples of it are almost always doomed to extinction.
Man may be special. Man’s adaptation has been the development of intelligence, which led to tool making. Tool making has allowed Man to exploit resources more effectively than any species before. It has, to an extent, enabled him to exist outside of the standard framework of ecological processes by creating his own environment. He has actually been able to escape his ecosystem and touch the stars. We are, however, talking about the extreme short term. The laws of sociology and psychology are new. The laws of biology and ecology are ancient.
Ecological processes continue. We can expect that over the short term, say five million years, Man will proliferate. Co-evolving, competing species will first diminish then adapt and proliferate themselves. Species that take advantage of the abundance of the resource, Man, will develop, perhaps microorganisms. The natural process of increased consumption and modification of resources will continue until the environment itself is altered. The constant running in the arms race of biological survival will continue.
Over the long term, say ¾ of a billion years, species will come and species will go, according to the natural process. As has been the case throughout the term of Life on Earth, external influences will occasionally introduce changes to which Life must quickly adapt. What the future holds cannot be foretold. What the past shows must be assumed to be the rule. There will be ups and downs, but Life will persist, in an oscillating balance. It must be understood, though, that “it takes all the running you can do to just stay in the same place.”
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Interesting information. Is this a story? Hmmm, I'll have to think this over, it's been a tough week.not a story, an expository essay. Thanks for reading and commenting
I really love this article. Your patience in describing how "things keep going fast to stay in the same place" is remarkable and praiseworthy. Thanks for having the patience to describe. The oscillating balance is an excellent phrase. There is also the ever rising line of evolutionThanks so much for reading and commenting
Interesting article, Jack. Maybe we aren't supposed to stay in the same place and we just haven't figured it out yet!
Oh bother, I meant to give 5 stars, so I came back to edit, but I can't change the stars, sorry!
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